The present invention relates in general to the field of furniture and furniture assemblies. More specifically, the present invention relates to knock-down furniture which may be partially disassembled for compact and efficient packaging.
Historically, furniture was manufactured and packaged wholly assembled, where it was then shipped to various retailers or end users in a fully assembled condition. Particularly for end users, this method of delivery was preferred as no assembly was required. However, this method of manufacture has drawbacks in the current marketplace, as shipping of wholly assembled furniture leaves voids in the packaging, which add to the overall shipping cost per unit shipped. Although this method of delivery does remain a viable method, typically it is only utilized for high-end or specialty furniture.
A subset of this method is furniture that may be packaged in a predominantly assembled condition, but which may require connection of limited numbers of components. Furniture produced by these methods of manufacture are often referred to as knock-down or “K.D.” furniture.
K.D. furniture suffer from a number of disadvantages over fully assembled furniture. In the case of furniture such as chairs having a base assembly such as a rocker mechanism, it has been the practice to manufacture and sell such furniture with a permanently attached base assembly. The permanently attached base assembly limits the ability to compactly package the furniture, and is undesirable because of the costs associated with shipping such furniture with the resultant large packaging voids. In addition, the joints formed between the consumer assembled components are often not as strong as joints which are factory assembled. As a result, the furniture may not last as long or be as stable in use. Even if the consumer assembled components are as stable as those which may be factory assembled, many end-users have the perception that such joints are less secure.
The present invention has arisen to solve the need for articles of furniture which are capable of being shipped in a relatively compact manner, but which do not require complete assembly by the end user. The present invention solves this need while also alleviating the concerns, justified or not, that end user assembled components suffer from strength or longevity deficiencies.